


shadowkat | Doctor Who - The Impossible Astronaut and an innovative take on time travel

by shadowkat67



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Episode Related, Episode Review, Essays, Literary References & Allusions, Meta, Multi, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-23
Updated: 2011-04-23
Packaged: 2021-02-19 16:01:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22380349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowkat67/pseuds/shadowkat67
Summary: Mainly an meta/review of "The Impossible Astronaut" and Doctor Song's relationship with the Doctor.
Relationships: Amy Pond/Rory Williams, Eleventh Doctor/Amy Pond/Rory Williams, Eleventh Doctor/River Song, The Doctor/River Song





	shadowkat | Doctor Who - The Impossible Astronaut and an innovative take on time travel

_The Impossible Astronaut_ is written by Stephen Moffat, who is rapidly replacing Joss Whedon in my geek fandom life.

In this episode, Moffat provides a rather cool twist on two tired old tropes: 1) star-crossed lover's motif and 2) time travelers.

This is revealed when Dr. River Song explains to Rory (who I'm rapidly developing a bit of a crush on) what the fate worse than her death or the Doctor's which awaits her, actually is. We already know this of course - because Moffat introduced the idea way back in the Library episode arc in S4

> Rory: What is the fate that lies in store for you, which you fear worse than either your death or the Doctor's? What could possibly be worse than that?
> 
> River: When I first met the Doctor, he knew everything about me. All my history, who I was, what I would become. And he loved me. That can really do something to an impressionable young girl - you have no idea.
> 
> Rory: Oh, I think I may have an idea.
> 
> River: We're traveling in opposite directions you see. Backwards from each other. Each time I meet him, he knows less and less about me, and each time he meets me, I know less and less about him. The day will come that I fear the most, when he, my Doctor, doesn't recognize me at all. That I look in his eyes, and he won't know who I am.  
>  And it will kill me. That would kill me.

Now that is an interesting and impossible conflict to overcome regarding star-crossed lovers. Far more interesting than some pesky curse, or families being at war, or one alien and one human - all of which are workable. This one not so much. Also it explores the idea of not being known by someone you love. Of how we are often defined by how others know us. Or what they know about us. To be known. To be seen.

This resonated for me. I know what it is like to have someone you deeply love and care for - forget you. Literally not be able to recognize your face or your voice. I had that experience about two-three years ago. My Granny - who I loved more than anything and who loved me, who had been one of my best friends, looked me in the face and literally had no clue who I was. She did not know my name. She could not place me. Our memories make us who we are, and time often forms those memories.

Doctor Song's fear is oddly the reverse of Donna Noble - who is made to forget the Doctor and all their experiences together. When he sees her again, she does not know him. Which is worse? Hard to say. My first thought was Donna. But it doesn't hurt to forget, it hurts to be forgotten.

This is a wonderfully nice twist on the whole time travel thing, takes it to a whole new level. The idea of the perfect spouse for a time traveler, being a fellow time traveler, who is traveling in the opposite direction. The only person who can truly understand you is someone else who is running through time. But what if they aren't running through time on the same wavelength or at the same time as you, and you meet, well out of order. Keeping journals to figure it out. Brilliant. No one has done that before. New variation on an old theme.

Not quite sure why - sounds simple enough. Also a hell of lot more interesting than the trope we see down in things like _The Time Traveler's Wife_ , Connie Willis novels, and a whole slew of other time travel stories, which I've admittedly read or watched too many of to count.

And yes, they do the whole Roswell thing too, with the evil soul-sucking spacemen - but I don't find that as interesting. The Brits bad guys are Daleks, the American's bad guys are funky looking spacemen who use mind control to overtake our country or suck the life out of you. (My paternal grandfather was sci-fi horror nut, he used to take my grandmother to all the old 1950s and 60s sci-fi invasion films. They had this book that listed all of them. And I remember watching a lot of them on tv at different points with my Grandfather, usually leaving the room because they scared the heck out of me.) At any rate, the whole trope got old for me back in the 1980s, which may explain why I never really found The X-Files that entertaining or scarey. Yeah, yeah, evil spacemen kidnapping us, let's move on.

That said, Moffat does a decent job of making them frightening. You forget them the moment you look away. Each one of Moffat's villains has a strength that makes them seem almost impossible to defeat. The Weeping Angels - if you blink, they get you, otherwise appear as statues. So you mustn't blink. Or shut your eyes. They only remain statues as long as you look at them. The piranha of the air - are shadows. You must stay in the light and out of the dark or shadows. And here, the spacemen - you must continue to look at them, don't turn your back and look at someone else, or you will forget them.

Although I'm wondering who is the victim here? And the villain? Another big American sci-fi trope is the kidnapped spacemen, used for biological experiments. See X-Files.

Rather happy to see Mark A Shepard play a good guy for a change, at least I assume he's playing a good guy - he always plays shifty characters. I did not recognize him as an old man, so I'm guessing they had two different actors play him - one as the old man, and the younger version? Rather like Shepard. You probably remember him from BSG - where he played Gaius Baltar's defense attorney. But he was also in Firefly - the shady informant/fence and in Leverage, as Nate Ford's insurance partner/rival. And finally in Supernatural as well, Crowley. He pops up in a lot of things. Rather hard-working journeyman tv actor, specializing in specific type of character role.

Interesting that the older version of the Doctor that we meet, the 1103 version (200 years older) has a journal which he pulls out - to see where he and Doctor Song are at in their respective time lines. This is the Doctor that knows Song quite well. 

1\. Clue one that things are a bit wonky. He invites four people that he trusts, Amy, Doctor Song, Sheppard's character whose name sounds like Delaware and rhymes with Delacare, and finally...himself. They are invited to the US, present day. Utah. And I agree with Matt Smith by the way, he looks really good in a stetson. They should keep that accessory. Much more fetching than the fez. 

2\. Clue two that things are wonky - the show starts in the 16th century, I think it's the 16th century, maybe the 17th? Probably the 17th, I'm rather horrid with dates - in case you hadn't already noticed. With the Doctor nude, and under the dress of a lady painter (wife of somebody important) who has just painted him in the buff. (And I can't quite decide if David Tennant would have been more fetching? No, definitely Eccleston or 9. At any rate - if I were Matt Smith - I wouldn't go posing in the nude. Does not have the body for it.) 

3.Clue three that things are wonky - he invites the four people he trusts the most, and one of them is Song. It's clear when the present Doctor pops up, Mr. 909, they last saw him as 908, so a year has passed for them as well as for us - he doesn't trust Song. He says: "Who are you? (I think he's asking who she is to him, which is interesting considering this is guy who seems to know everything) Why are you in prison? And why should I trust you? Being in a love with a bad girl, me, yes, but trust you? Seriously?" He's curious as to why and how it comes to be that he eventually does.

And Clue 4 that things are wonky - a spacemen shows up and kills the Doctor, after Amy sees an odd shape in the sun.

I knew he wasn't dead - because hello, Doctor Who. You aren't going to kill off the main character, there's always a loop hole. Here it could very well be that he's 1103 when he dies, so it happens 200 years in the future. Bet that's going to become a popular trivia question soon. How old is the Doctor when he dies? 1103. Assuming of course they don't find a way around it.

But I rather liked River's comment to Amy: " _We're all going to die some day, Amy."_ Life is temporary, even for the Doctor, who runs from death.

And he states as much - during their picnic, before his death - _"I've been running my whole life, it's time I stopped running. Today is that time. I'm not running any more."_ Running from time or through time, not sure which.

Life and death are heavy themes in Doctor Who. The idea of time running out. Amy who is the most grief-stricken by the death of her impossible friend, is the one who sees the death of the woman in the bathroom at the hands of the alien. Running to save the child who calls Nixon for help, they find a weird storehouse, with odd things in it. Aliens that they see, but can't remember. And while Rory goes on the Doctor's orders to aid River in her search of the tunnels...understandably concerned, Amy stays behind with the Doctor, along with Del (Mark Sheppard). She keeps trying to tell him something - we think it's what the alien told her to tell the Doctor in the bathroom, but it turns out finally to be something else. "I'm pregnant," she says, before she turns and fires on the astronaut walking towards them, who appears to be the one she saw kill the Doctor. But in fact turns out to be a child in an astronaut suit. She's just shot and killed the child. Irony.

Meanwhile, Rory has just seen the aliens and River turning to him, sees an odd light and says in horror - Rory??

That's where we end.

Lots going on. And rather amusing bits in between. I rather like Moffat for his sense of humor and wit. And he creates fairly tough female characters, who as a friend of mine would put it - get to be strong as women. River in some respects feels like the Doctor's equal, in a way that Donna Nobel was never quite permitted to be. And only Rose came halfway close to. Amy and Rory are our main povs. We see things mainly through their eyes, with a few variations. I'm not sure if this is true of all the Doctor Who series, but in the RTD and Moffat years - we know Doctor Who through his companion's eyes.

The commentary on America is interesting - _"we're in the most powerful country in the world"_ (actually I'm starting to think that may end up being China, since the US is killing itself by over-investing in Defense, but that's a discussion for another day.) And the fact that the Americans have no clue what a Tardis is or the Doctor. Their experience with aliens is somewhat different. Del's reaction to the Tardis and Who's explanation of who they are (we were sent by Scotland Yard): _"So how long has Scotland Yard had this the ability to time travel and go about in space?"_ LOL! (While we were doing Time Tunnel, Star Trek and Space 1999, they were doing Doctor Who, The Prisoner, and I have no idea when Blake's Seven was on.) Also interesting which areas they picked to visit - Utah - or the West, which is very distinct from just about anywhere in Northern Europe. You go to Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and just stare out at open space that goes on and on and on. That vastness can swallow you whole. It can be a bit overwhelming. And they do a marvelous job filming it. Then switch to DC and the Oval Office - which is huge as well.  
What I love most about Doctor Who sometimes is the subtle cultural differences that I pick up on. Also, it's quite fun that Mark Sheppard who is American, has a similar accent to Amy Pound.


End file.
